Beetons chip shop serves up for the final time

The final day for the family business on Saturday saw a steady stream of customers grab their last portions of fish, chips, burgers and battered sausages, as owners Andy and Kim Ashplant fried up for the last time before a well-earned retirement.

Mrs Ashplant admitted she and the family had been a ‘bit teary’ all week. ‘It’s hard to imagine that this is it, I don’t think it will really hit us until the end of next week when we have finished cleaning and packing everything up for good,’ she said.

The business opened in 2000, and since then Mrs Ashplant estimated it had got through 6,000 tons of potatoes.

‘It’s hard to say the exact number of customers we’ve had, we haven’t been keeping count – but it’ll have been a lot.’

As for what had stood out to the family over the two and a half decades of business, Mrs Ashplant’s daughter Claire Driscoll – who had brought along her children Vinnie, 5, and Lennie, 2, to the finale – said it was the people who made Beetons what it was.

‘We’ve created a community,’ she said.

‘Seeing kids come through the doors, and then coming back as adults with kids of their own so many years later, that sums up how popular it’s been with so many people for so long.’

The chippy’s last customers were sad to see it go.

Alex Ogier and his daughter Anya, 12, said it had always been their go-to chippy.

‘I come all-year-round,’ Anya said.

‘My favourite thing to get is sausage and chips, so that’s what I’ve gone for this last time. I’ll miss it for sure.’

Gordon Young, who has been a regular customer for the entire 25 years of Beetons’ existence, said he was ‘very sad’ it was closing.

‘They’ve done such good charity work on top of their amazing food,’ he said.

‘They’ve been a real force for good in the community.’